Despite the recent interest in adopting HTML5's video tag, there is still one major problem: there is no mandated standard video codec for the video tag. The two main contestants are the proprietary and patended h264, and the open and free Theora. In a comment on an LWN.net article about this problematic situation, LWN reader Trelane posted an email exchange he had with MPEG-LA, which should further cement Theora as the obvious choice.

Where would the internet be if HTML and JPEG required distributors and readers to pay some fee.

I guess it would be on PNG, just like it now is on JPEG as a result of GIF once had unacceptable licensing terms. The same thing will happen with video. People don't like to pay if they don't have to, and there are more people that have money to save on using an unencumbered format than there are people making money from it.